Shen Yourong, also spelled Shihong, was a famous general of the Ming Dynasty during the Wanli Dynasty. General Shen Yourong was a martial artist who had spent more than 40 years in his life on horseback and had distinguished himself in battle. He defeated the Japanese Wokou twice, drove out the Dutch invaders, defended Taiwan three times, and was known as the first to defend Taiwan.
Portrait of General Shen Yourong
In the twelfth year of the Wanli Calendar, the Mongol border troubles of the Ming Empire suddenly arose. At this time, shortly after zhang Juzheng's downfall, Qi Jiguang, who was believed to be Zhang Juzheng's party, was also implicated and transferred to the coastal area of Guangdong. The Mongolian ministries that had been honest for more than ten years saw the "Qi Tiger" leave their posts, and it can be said that they breathed a long sigh of relief and began to wield the machete in their hands again, burning and looting in the border areas. One day, Chang Ang, the leader of the Mongolian Duoyan tribe, led thousands of Mongol warriors to invade the border, they plundered all the way and tried to find that the Ming army's border defense was full of loopholes, and even crossed the Great Wall for miles to Reach Liujiakou. Unfortunately, this time their opponent was Shen Yourong. At that time, Shen Yourong, as the commander of the thousand troops, led his own pawns to a total of 29 people stationed at Liujiakou, but he faced an enemy that was a hundred times larger than himself, and did not have the slightest fear or hesitation, but encouraged the soldiers to kill the enemy bravely, and used the bird hammer to instantly kill more than seventy enemy people. Taking advantage of the great chaos of the enemy army, Shen Yourong ignored the injuries and rushed into the enemy army to cut down six people. The Duoyan soldiers were horrified and quickly retreated. In this battle, Shen Yourong relied on his superior fighting courage and will to fight, and only 29 people repelled the attack of thousands of Mongol cavalry, which can be said to be famous in the first battle. This year, he was 26 years old.
Duoyan Sanwei was a very brave Mongol cavalryman
On the eighth day of the first month of December in the 30th year of the Wanli Calendar, the Wokou invaded Taiwan, established a stronghold in Dayuan (present-day Anping, Tainan), and plundered and oppressed the people along the southeast coast and on the island of Taiwan. These Wokou were composed of Japanese samurai, ronin, and profiteers, and their single-soldier fighting skills were very high, generally supported by Japan's feudal armed lords, and their weapons were also very sophisticated. This made Zhu Yunchang, the inspector of Fujian at the time, feel very headaches, "Ande Haojie, who is worried about me? "。 At this time, he thought of Shen Yourong, who had become famous and had made great achievements in battle at a young age, and ordered Shen Yourong to lead 24 warships to immediately go to Taiwan to conquer and suppress. Unexpectedly, the fleet encountered a hurricane while passing through Penghu, causing the fleet to be lost, leaving only 14 warships. Before reaching the destination, half of its own strength was lost first, which can be described as a major blow to the disadvantage of the division. However, Shen Yourong was not discouraged, "Leading all the soldiers to fight to the death, all of them were defeated by a hundred, and the thieves were defeated." "This battle was the first time in history that Taiwan was recovered from foreign hands, and it was also an important action of the Ming Dynasty to show sovereignty in Taiwan."
In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the Wokou became an important hidden danger in the southeast coastal defense
Also in this year, in order to seek more overseas interests, the Dutch government carried out trade activities, merged and reorganized overseas trade, and established the "United East India Company", which was led by the fleet commander Wei Malang from the Netherlands and came to the East after more than 300 days of voyage, in an attempt to open the door to trade exchanges. Under the guidance of Chinese profiteers, Wei Malang attempted to forcibly occupy the Penghu Archipelago in Taiwan as a stronghold for trading mutual markets, and used heavy money to buy the eunuch Gao Gong (shen, sansheng), a tax eunuch sent by the imperial court to Fujian. Although Gao Gong was nominally only a tax inspector, in essence he was the emperor's chincha minister, and at the local level, he was a local emperor who called for wind and rain, and under the temptation of heavy money, he acquiesced to the fact that the Dutch forcibly occupied Penghu and agreed to mutual market. Shen Yourong felt that these Dutch people came here to request mutual markets, not to be robbers and thieves, and if they were directly eliminated, it would not be enough to prove the vastness of China. So he decided to salute first and then soldier, and sailed a fishing boat alone to negotiate with the Dutch, which had the courage of Guan Erye's single knife in the Three Kingdoms period. Although Wei Malang had heard of Shen Yourong's prestige, he was reluctant to leave with the support of the East India Company and the high-ranking people who bought it, and his samurai even had to draw their swords against Shen Yourong. Shen Yourong calmly said, "I am a great China, and the money I have is thousands of thousands?" You have been tricked by some rats and villains into wanting to come to the mutual market, and when the time comes, the money will not be taken away, the business will not be done, and it will be too late to regret it. Shen Yourong warned, "If Er Waiting wants to talk about war, he is thinking of rebellion!" Haven't you seen my mighty soldiers of the Heavenly Dynasty? Don't regret it. Under shen Yourong's soft and hard hand, the Dutch judged the situation and finally left Penghu. On the occasion of his departure, Wei Malang specially found a painter to paint a portrait of Shen Yourong, and gave them away with copper hammers and bullets and some local products to show his admiration. Shen Yourong, with his extraordinary courage and open-mindedness, successfully recovered Penghu, the territory invaded by the European maritime power, the Netherlands, and intended to occupy, which was a major victory in China's ancient diplomatic history and the second time Shen Yourong successfully defended Taiwan.
In the 17th century, the Netherlands became the hegemon of the world and was known as the "coachman of the sea"
In the 41st year of the Wanli Calendar, the Japanese shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu, in order to break the Ming Dynasty's trade embargo on Japan, began to fight the idea of Taiwan, so he ordered nagasaki's acting official Murayama and others to lead the "Murayama Fleet" to invade and occupy Taiwan. However, Murayama waited for An's trip to be unsuccessful, and he sent his son Akian to lead eleven warships from Nagasaki, but the fleet encountered a storm on the way, and the fleet drifted apart. Although the three ships led by Akashi Daoyou reached northern Taiwan, the soldiers on one of the small boats landed hastily, were besieged by the indigenous people of Taiwan, and were forced to commit suicide. Two other ships led by Akashi Daoyou flowed into the fujian sea and burned and looted. Shen Yourong used his prestige of resisting the Wokou for many years to subdue Akashi I's army, and then led the marine division to besiege Dongsha Island, and adopted the method of using the Wokou to force the recalcitrant Wokou on the island to abandon their weapons and surrender. In the Battle of Dongsha, Shen Yourong did not hurt a single pawn, did not fold half a arrow, did not fight grain, did not short time, and returned quickly. When people praised it, "let Yu and Qi regenerate, and also be the first to approve." This is the third time that Shen Yourong has successfully defended Taiwan.
Shen Yourong defended Taiwan, and the people erected a monument for him
Shen Yourong once wrote a poem, "After taking the sword from the flying general, I want to sweep away the demon fierce." This is the glorious portrayal of Shen Yourong's life. He successfully defended Taiwan from foreign invaders three times, and although he was not well known for his meritorious service due to historical reasons, he left an indelible contribution to the Chinese nation. In today's critical period for the development of the cause of the motherland's reunification, as sons and daughters of China, we should learn from General Shen's deeds and make our own efforts for the reunification of the motherland!